


A Daughter's Nightmare

by Katie237



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Hurt Barry Allen, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Promo, Short, Team Flash, Weather Witch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-08-28 18:21:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16728537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katie237/pseuds/Katie237
Summary: 5x07 inspired story; Weather Witch had been defeated, but at what cost? Barry is dying in his daughter's arms and there's not enough time to save him. If Team Flash wants to reverse the damages done, they'll need to think fast before it's too late.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to this little piece I made after watching the trailer for next week's episode (5x07 O Come, All Ye Thankful). It's not my best work ever since I've done this a tad fast to get it out before the episode. I hope you'll still enjoy it.

Barry's difficult and shallow breathing was the only sound accompanying Nora's sobs over the comms that were making the relay between the speedster duo and the laboratory. Behind the computers and in all the cortex for that matter, heavy silence had fallen, and if it had been the hotter part of the year, all the runaway flies would've been heard sneaking around.

It couldn't be. It wasn't happening.

Maybe it was a dream. Maybe if the team could wish it strong enough it would make it go away.

Everyone was terrified of speaking, an action that might cause them to miss their friend's last breath. They needed to keep their silent vigil 'till the very end, even if the man was too unconscious right now to know what was going on and who was or wasn't listening.

"Dad..." Painfully sobbed Nora, rocking her dad's upper body and clinging to him for her life, "guys, we have to do something," she added to her comms between her tears that were cascading down her cheeks and splashing on Barry's red suit.

"No...Nora, we can't," answered Cisco with difficulty. Admitting these words were a death sentence and Cisco felt the bile rising his throat the second they came out of his mouth.

Their plan to take down Weather Witch was risky, for sure, but it could be done with relative safety. Against the woman's unique set of powers driving her more powerful than her father, the scientist team at S.T.A.R. created a paralysis gas that would safely disable her abilities. Except, there was one little, or more like huge, problem; that same gas could theoretically bond with the Speed-force and be dangerously poisonous to a speedster. The speedster duo needed to throw their gas bomb as close as possible to Weather Witch to engulf her in the toxic cloud, but do it from a distance that was far away enough not to be exposed to the danger zone.

Everything was going as planned, all the way to the moment Nora got pinned down and Barry jumped straight on their adversary, motivated by a deadly mix of heroism and fatherly concern. His action prompted him to violently tackle Weather Witch and break the gas cylinder on both of them.

Sure, that metahuman was down for the count and the good guys had won. Except, now, the counter effect on the speedster was devastating; the convulsions had started gasping for air before Barry had even hit the ground, leaving the hero desperately struggling for consciousness. He was dying faster than anyone could've calculated.

"Please, dad, don't leave me again," implored Nora when she felt the last bit of consciousness leaving her father.

The anguish in the young XS' voice was devastating and almost pushed Caitlin to cut down the comms.

'You can synthesize a cure,' said a cold voice in her head, jostling Caitlin out of her torpor. For a moment Caitlin had forgotten she was still wearing Harry's mental activity dampener device. It was going to take a little moment to adjust to hearing Frost.

"I can't, not in time," protested Caitlin, angry and gesturing.

It was Cisco' turn to look and stared at his friend in surprise. Was his best friend talking to herself really their new normal? Good thing she had the shining blue device on her forehead to remind everyone she hadn't gone mad just yet. Once the doctor and the ice Meta would be fully connected, that would be another story.

 _'How long?'_  Inquired Frost again.

"I don't know….a few hours, maybe. Barry doesn't have that kind of time," answered Caitlin, her crying altering the sound of her voice.

 _'Let me take over,_ ' requested the voice in her head.

With nothing to lose, other than time and Barry's life, Caitlin didn't hesitate. Inhaling sharply and closing her eyes, she allowed the Ice Queen to take over. No, correction, not the Ice Queen, more like the Snow Goddess.

Under Cisco and Sherloque's confused eyes Caitlin's brunette hair turned into a stunning shiny greyish, almost white, tone, over her shoulders and blue jacket.

"Get the Interdimensional extrapolator and grab your jacket too. It's gonna get cold," ordered Killer Frost to Cisco before going to the comms, "XS; you bring the Flash here-"

"Frost?" The surprise and hesitation were all over Nora's voice as her gasping for air under the emotion stopped for a moment.

"-now!" Completed Killer Frost before turning to Cisco who was swiftly grabbing the requested items; the extrapolator and his winter coat.

"Where are we going?"

"North Pole. Back to the lab," confidently said Frost, her calm attitude posing a striking difference with Caitlin's barely holding together demeanor.

"Let's go!" quickly added the ice Meta when the purple and yellow speed-force characteristic of Nora West-Allen showed up in the lab while carrying the dead-weight of her father with a full-blown panic in her eyes and dry tears track on her face.

In this state, it was doubtful that Nora even realized that Barry's death would erase her from existence. The only thought roaming through her mind was the one of losing her dad again, after barely meeting him for the first time in her life earlier this year.

Helping the young woman by taking half the charge of Barry's weight, by grabbing one of his arms, Cisco half-dragged his best friend to the newly formed breach, followed by Killer Frost. The freezing room temperature whipped everyone in the face, even if they were protected from the wind by being inside. It was only then that Cisco realized he took his coat but forgot about taking winter gloves. One thing for sure, he wasn't going to turn back 'til he knew why Killer Frost had taken control of her host's body and decided to drag them here. Plus, there was worse as Nora was only wearing her speedster suit, but was too close to slipping into shock to realize the ambient temperature.

Between the two of them, Barry's breathing grew even slower and more erratic.

Without any explanation, no time for that, the ice Meta walked to the cryogenic chamber extremity and pressed a few buttons, making it open. Of course, cold. That was going to slow his condition for a moment, just enough to prepare an antidote. Why hadn't they think of that before? Well, other than because of their overwhelming panic?

"Put him in there," she firmly instructed over a short gasp from the dying speedster. There wasn't much time left.

Quickly and efficiently, Cisco and Nora maneuvered the man into the chamber with their heart clenching in anguish. There weren't even sure when their hands let go, and the chamber's wall started closing if their friend was still breathing.

Approaching the quickly fogging glass, Cisco laid his hands on it with the famous Star Trek popping back into his mind;  _I have been and always shall be your friend._

"Please, man, hang in there," he said, instead, in the next moment.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took a whole week longer than anticipated; the truth is I ended up writing 2x what I thought I would to end this story, so it took me twice as long to write the draft. Posting the 2nd part now and gonna post the 3rd and last part next week
> 
> Please note that:
> 
> -I wrote this without my Beta and English is only my 2nd language, so excuse all the typos and grammar mistakes
> 
> -This is still an AU from 5x07 (the thanksgiving episode), planned and started before the episode aired and based only on the promo where Nora was holding a dead/dying Barry.

Seated on the sofa in his home, Joe frowned at his cellphone when he saw the caller ID: Captain Singh. Why would his boss call him so early in the day? With the baby at home, it's not like the detective was due back at work anytime soon. Joe sure didn't remember that raising a baby was so exhausting.

"Captain?" Joe quietly asked while picking up his phone trying not to wake up Cecile and the baby who were resting upstairs.

"Humn, Joe-" started Singh, hesitant, "-I'm sorry to bother you, but I've been wondering if you wouldn't have any news on The Flash by any chances."

The question and the way it got slowly pronounced, with a hint of worry in the policeman's voice, froze Joe's blood. What happened to the Flash? What happened to Barry? More than that, why was the captain contacting him of all people about it?

Oh, also, what the hell happened to The Flash?

"Captain?" Inquired Joe with all his strength oriented toward keeping his voice from shaking in fear.

"The Flash went into a fight with Mardon's daughter, and my officers who first arrived on the scene to pick her up said The Flash seemed unresponsive, " started to explain David to the detective who could feel his anxiety rising a tad more with every new word.

Mardon's daughter? Unresponsive Flash?

"The new girl, XS I believe, took him away," finished Singh.

 _Oh God. Barr_ , thought Joe. What was going on? Barry's foster father had struggles hearing the rest of the chat because of the blood pumping so hard in his ears thanks to his heart picking up the pace.

"Since you and Iris always seemed to have privileged information on him, I was hoping you would know if he's ok," completed the police's captain with obvious concern.

 _He knows,_  concluded Joe. Of course, Singh knew who was under the speedster's mask; he probably always did or suspected it.

"I...I... don't-" rambled Joe as his heart was painfully pumping in his chest.

He hadn't received a single call from S.T.A.R. Lab, so it had to mean Barry was okay, right?

Or he was...

No! He was fine! He had to be. Any other possibly just wasn't an option.

"I'll keep you informed as soon as I know anything," promised Joe.

"Please do."

Hanging up, the detective quick dialed his daughter's number.

"Please Iris, pick up. Please, pick up," he whispered again and again as the ringing tone was resonating in his ears.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

"What's taking so long?" Grumbled Iris who was on the edge of losing her sanity.

Her husband was dying and frozen like a popsicle in the North Pole at this very instant and what was she doing now? She was sitting on her ass, doing nothing. All of them were.

Well, more like most of them as Caitlin was desperately working against the clock to concoct an antidote to counteract the poison running in Barry's veins. With every passing second, the chances of successfully resuscitating the hero and restarting his system were diminishing. Putting Barry in the chamber might've slowed his too-rapid deterioration, the one that was about to kill him in a matter of minutes, but he wasn't wholly cryogenized. What this meant, concretely, was that the team only gained themselves a few hours, extending Barry's lifespan roughly by two or three hours. It might be even less than that as these numbers were pure speculation. Who knew how long Barry still had?

Ralph and Nora insisted on staying back to keep a helpless eye on the dying hero while Cisco was trying his best, which wasn't much, to assist Caitlin in her work. But, very quickly, the engineer realized he couldn't do much and ended up waiting for an update, side by side with Iris in the medical room while Sherlocque was somewhere else in the laboratory.

"She's doing her best," reminded Cisco to his friend's wife; losing their patience wasn't going to help Barry.

Forcing herself to calm down, just a tad, Iris stopped her non-stop walking that was making the engineer dizzy and took a deep breath before putting her hands on her cheeks and looking down.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry, it's just-"

"I feel the same way," assured Cisco, getting up and walking closer to the reporter.

Hearing bits and pieces of the conversation going on behind her in the medical room, Caitlin barely took a second to glance over her shoulder before continuing her precious work.

Looking down at her watch, the doctor bit her lips; it had been over an hour already. Almost an hour and a half. How long had Barry left? Was it already too late?

On the room's desk, Iris' phone vibrated for the second time in less than a minute, but her anxious conversation with Vibe and her sobbing that came rushing back through her throat and pass her lips made her deaf to her device's alert. The caller would have to wait for a while longer.

"It's going to be ok," whispered Cisco, fully aware he was in no position to make such promises.

"Got it!" Suddenly exclaimed Caitlin, mere minutes later, turning around and proudly holding high a syringe filled with a transparent yellowish liquid.

"Is that-" started to ask Vibe who turned around to face his best friend while frantically palpating his vest's pocket. Where the hell did he put the breaching device?

If Caitlin was holding what he thought she was, they were going to need it.

"It should neutralize the poison and allow his speed force's healing abilities to take over," affirmed the doctor, but the joy she gathered thanks to finding a possible cure got cut-short, "but we're only going to have one shot at this. If it doesn't work, we can't freeze him again."

"I trust you," instantly and truthfully answered Iris.

"Cisco?" Asked the doctor.

By the time Caitlin turned around to face Cisco, the man had managed to find and take out the interdimensional extrapolator from his pocket. With a quick nod, he indicated he was ready to jump back into action. Let's do this.

"Let's go!" Said Vibe just before swiftly opening a blue portal a couple of feet behind the chair where the winter coats had been piled on earlier.

One by one, the trio entered it and arrived in the polar cold of the North Pole's research facility. Landing on the other side and putting his coat on, the one he grabbed before jumping into the breach, Cisco opened his mouth to get ready to comment about the fact Caitlin rushed in only wearing her thin green dress with a long black sleeve. That was 'till he remembered she was immune to cold. So, instead, he kept his comment to himself and closed his mouth.

"You guys have the cure?" Quickly inquired Nora, panic and worry still reading all over her tired features.

Ralph stayed between the young speedster and the cryogenic chamber.

"I think we do," enigmatically answered Caitlin, biting her bottom lips; they had to try this.

Barry probably wasn't going to hold up long enough for the team to try anything else, they had no other choice.

"How is he?" Asked Cisco, quickly striding over to his friend's cryogenic chamber. The frost and ice covering the glass from the inside were making it impossible to see the person they were fiercely trying to save.

"He's….still fighting, I think," carefully said, Ralph, while walking to Vibe with his arms tightly crossed on his chest.

It was a stupid question and a stupid answer; there was no way to monitor Barry's condition as long as he was in that thing. For all they knew, he might already be gone. For sure, that thought had crossed everyone's mind, even if no one dared to say a thing.

"Open it," instructed Caitlin, swallowing hard and walking straight next to the glass.

The temptation to let someone else, anyone, open the chamber and stay behind 'till they knew if Barry was alive was high; Caitlin didn't want to make that discovery if things weren't going to turn out their way.

The slow pace with which the chamber opened was pure torture, and it was pushing everyone's anxiety to the roof.

 _Come on, Barry. Still be with us_ , desperately hoped the doctor when the red boots, covered in frost, came to her view.

Her friend's legs and chest followed a moment later and, finally, the unmasked face got out with blue lips and ice mixing with frost on his delicate skin.

Oh God. Caitlin's shaking fingers almost dropped her syringe to the floor where it would be exploded and lose all his content when her brain registered all the visual details of Barry's condition. There was no movement in her friend; Barry was as still and cold as a dead body. Tightening her grip around her equipment, Caitlin swiftly moved into action and injected the translucent liquid straight into Barry's neck before putting her syringe down and gathering the courage to press her fingers against the frozen neck. An icy sensation spread inside of her when Caitlin didn't find anything at first. Gulping and stopping her breathing altogether, she pressed harder.

The seconds felt like hours for everyone.

"Cait?" Finally asked Iris.

"I can't seem to find a pulse, not sure if he's breathing-" she stuttered, barely holding on. Maybe her overwhelming emotions shaking her to the core were the reason why she couldn't feel a thing.

"We have to bring him back to the lab," urgently said Ralph while walking forward.

Next to him was Nora, also rushing to the cryogenic chamber and already creating lightings around her body.

"I can bring back some heat into him first," said the young speedster who was getting closer to her father, only to bump into the arm Caitlin had suddenly put in the way to prevent Nora from going further.

"Not yet-" interrupted Caitlin, "Let's take him to S.T.A.R. Lab first. I wanna make sure I can give him oxygen and hook him up on the monitors the second we kick-start his metabolism," she said.

"But, your s-"

"Even if what I give him work; it might still take a few moments, or minutes, to start taking effect; he might go into respiratory distress the moment his body will warm up and start requesting more oxygen," urgently explained Caitlin to the hero's daughter. Understanding, Nora nodded and allowed Caitlin to continue, "alright, let's move. Now!"

The ice Meta probably didn't need to shout her instruction this loud considering how they all understood the emergency of the situation, but her commanding voice sure gave a little boost to the whole team. The way the words came out of her mouth made it look like Caitlin had everything was under control, and everything was going to be ok.

Swiftly, Ralph and Cisco gathered the speedster between them just as Iris was opening a breach with the interdimensional extrapolator.

In less than a minute after Caitlin ordered them to move, Team Flash was back inside the lab's medical area and appearing under the surprised eyes of Joe. The detective witnessed them come back from who knows where while carrying an unconscious, way too pale, and blue lips speedster covered in frost all over his suit.

So concentrated on their task and their concern, nobody noticed Joe's presence until after Barry had been put on the closest medical bay and the man decided to speak up:

"What the hell is going on here? "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? Leave a comment, always appreciated. Excited for the final part?
> 
> Zero Hour is coming tomorrow, who's ready to get more information on Jay's apprentice?


	3. Chapter 3

Joe's voice boomed in the cortex at the arrival of the team: "What the hell is going on here?"

Iris almost jumped out of her skin in surprise; what was her dad doing here? Has he been warned about Barry's condition? Swiftly turning on her heels, Iris faced her father while Nora and Caitlin quickly glanced back at them, but kept their concentration on the patient.

"Now, Nora," instructed the doctor to XS just before the speedster put both her hands on her father's chest and sent a beautiful mix of purple and yellow lightings around Barry, efficiently warming the man faster than any heat blanket or moist oxygen could've done it.

"Not now," quietly said Iris to her father before orienting once more her attention to the action going on in front of her. To be honest, Joe probably didn't even hear her intervention as he was also intensively staring ahead, straight at his foster son.

It was working; the colors were slowly but surely returning to Barry's cheeks and lips. Quickly, the frost also melted off his clothes which caused them to become wet and cold. Noticing this almost instantly, Nora rushed ahead to take off the Flash suit, leaving her father exposed in his boxer to his team for a second until Caitlin gently put a blanket on his legs and lifted it to his waist.

A sudden and loud gasp erupted from the red hero's throat accompanied by half-opened and unseen eyes darting around just before Barry started shifting on the bed.

"Hold him still," ordered Caitlin, grateful to see Ralph and Joe jumping into action right away to comply. Their quick response allowed her to strap an oxygen mask over the man's mouth and connect the sensors on Barry's body the best she could.

By the time everything was connected, Barry's eyes were closed again, and his breaths were now fast, shallow and uneven. With all he got, which wasn't much, the CSI was still weakly thrashing in the bed against the hands holding him down. With every passing second, his struggles grew weaker, just like his breathing pattern. His vitals that were displayed on the monitors were all over the place; low, weak and going up and down every few moments.

"Easy, Barry, you're ok, easy," whispered the doctor.

"We're right here," added Iris who moved to the other side of the bed and took one of her husband's hands into her own. She winced in pain when the Flash suddenly crushed her limb before slightly arching his back, but the reporter didn't say a thing.

She was willing to endure all the pain in the world if that was going to ease her soulmate's discomfort. Right now, Barry's desperation to get oxygen to enter his lungs was quickly fogging his mask. As the hero was falling more and more into the darkness, the hold he had on his wife's hand grew weaker, and slight tremors shook his body.

"Shouldn't you intubate him or something?" worriedly inquired Cisco, feeling his heart clenching at the view.

"I might have to. Just give him a moment...Come on, Barry, come on," begged the doctor, staring at the man's vitals.

As if on cue, the oxygen level in the man's body finally started to stabilize before rising a little, which allowed Ralph and Joe to release their grip and the whole crowd in the room to exhale in relief.

"I think the serum is working," said Caitlin who was leaning forward to adjust the oxygen mask that got disturbed a tad by the man's fight, "I think he'll be ok."

Gently and delicately, Iris put back her husband's hand on the bed but refused to let it go completely. Instead, she took a seat to stay by his side. In the last minute alone she somehow managed to completely forget about her dad's surprise appearance in the lab. Except, Joe hadn't forgotten about that.

"Anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on around here?" He requested, looking at every single face around.

That was going to be a long day.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

"Hey, Captain, I'm sorry it took me so long to call you back," said Joe, a full hour after arriving at S.T.A.R. Star.

The detective was now seated on a chair placed at Barry's bedside, uncomfortable but happy to get a moment alone with the man he proudly considered his son.

In the last hour, Caitlin managed to stabilize her friend's condition and, helped by Iris, changed the hero into comfortable clothes; sweatpants and warm S.T.A.R. sweater. The only medical equipment left on him was the oxygen mask and the finger pulse oximeter, and now, the only thing they could do was wait.

Unable to keep still any longer, especially considering how painful these uncomfortable chairs were, Joe got up and started walking around in the room. That's when he spotted Barry's phone on the desk and stopped, thinking; the phone had barely vibrated once since the detective got there, which meant the hero only received a text during this period. Except, by this time of day, the speedster should've already received a few extra calls from his boss for not showing up at work.

Singh.

That's when Iris' father took back his seat next to Barry's bed and made the call, suddenly remembering the police captain.

"It's ok, I've been pretty busy and haven't had much chance to think about Flash," said Singh, even if his tired voice was telling a whole different story than his words.

"He's...The Flash had been located," said Joe, acting like he wasn't seeing through his boss' pretenses, "he'll be ok. Or that's what I was able to find out," quickly added the Detective who was poorly trying to keep a cover both interlocutors knew wasn't there anymore.

A sigh of relief was heard on the other side.

"Thank you, Joe."

"Captain, if you don't mind-"

"Just, if you see Allen-" slowly started David with uncertain words. Grabbing a hold on himself, the police captain coughed and cleared his voice before continuing, "he hasn't been showing up today, and he's not answering my calls on his phone."

What calls? The ones on the phone that hadn't received any of them in the last hour? That wasn't suspicious at all. It was almost if the Captain had figured out there was a good reason why his employee was nowhere to be seen and decided not to call. Almost.

"If you see him, just-" continued the CC Police Captain, his tone suddenly getting more gentle, "tell him to be careful and take it easy. That's if he does have a good reason to be so late," corrected Singh.

Of course, he knew. He knew about what Barry was doing when he wasn't at work. For some reason, Joe wasn't surprised. Not at all. Why else would their boss be so soft on Barry's repetitive absences, be so understanding of his sudden sabbatical and be the only person in town, other than Team Flash, to keep faith in the man after he got accused of murdering Devoe? Singh was smart. He wasn't the Police captain for nothing.

"I will," gently said Joe, "I need to go, now."

"Of course, keep me updated," concluded Singh, not long before hanging up and leaving Joe back to his silent moment in the room, soon joined by both his daughter and granddaughter. The latter was still wearing her speedster suit.

Groans from the bed were the first sign that Barry was finally coming around, hours later, and it prompted Nora to jostle on her chair where she had been dozing on and off for a long moment now. One look to her right confirmed that her grandfather was still out for the count and her mom hadn't come back.

"Dad?" She gently whispered to the man on the bed.

"Nora?" Rasped Barry while slowly opening his tired eyes before blinking a few times to adjust his vision to the light assaulting them, "so, no death, huh?" He mumbled, half-joking, before closing his eyes again.

The half part of the joke got lost on his daughter; no smile brightened up her face. Not only that, but Nora also looked almost angry. Her tensed features were mixed with the dry tear marks on her cheeks.

"You almost died, again!" she shouted.

Well, Barry was almost sure she indeed screamed at him, but it was hard to tell when every single sound sounded like a scream to his still ringing ears.

"I don't-" started to mumble Barry while opening his eyes there were now adjusted to the light and looking up at his daughter.

His sentence died on his lips when his sleeping brain caught up with the real meaning behind XS's the sentence; Nora was referring to his future fate.

His slight confusion didn't get lost on XS who soothed her expression a tad and sat back in her chair. When did she even get up? Nora had no recollection of doing that action in the first place…

The apparent struggle in her young face pushed Barry to move his right arm with the clear intention to reach out to his baby girl. His movement was stopped by the twinge of the needle in his hand connecting him to the IV.

It wasn't entirely in vain, because Nora saw the motion and moved forward, her expression filled with concern. Dragging her chair on the ground, she winced at the unintentional screeching sound it made when the furniture scraped the floor on its way to get as close as possible to the speedster's bedside. Making it, she gently took her father's hand between her own while carefully avoiding disturbing the IV.

"Hey, Caitlin said you shouldn't try to move too much," she said, "you've been out for a full day."

Damn, that long? Anxiety rose in Barry's mind and constricted his chest. No wonder his daughter seemed so disturbed; things must've been bad considering how speedsters could usually regenerate broken bones in a few hours. The CSI wasn't an expert in the art of dying, but the last thing he remembered before going under sure felt like he was. The simple fact of breathing at this very moment was requesting way more effort than it should be.

"I'm sorry I scared you, I didn't want to," weakly said Barry, barely getting to the end of his first full sentence since waking up as the air just felt so heavy, and speaking was just so damn hard. The hero had a feeling he now knew how alpinists feel when they're so high in the mountains that oxygen is incredibly thin.

"I can't lose you, not now, not ever," tearfully answered Nora with her emotions on a roller coaster, going from one extreme to another, "you were dying in my arms and-"

"You won't lose me again," he promised, "we'll find a way to stop this crisis."

Shaking her head, Nora let go of her father's hand, "you can't make such promises, and you know it. What if I can't save you? What if-"

Closing his eyes again and taking a few, short, and difficult breathes, Barry barely heard everything that followed. She was right. So far, despite all the things he changed in the timeline, the article about him going missing hadn't changed a bit. Maybe his destiny was sealed, perhaps his death was a fixed point in time like his mother's.

The thought had his stomach aching.

"No, I can't," he admitted in the middle of Nora's unending speech, which prompted his daughter to look straight back at him with widening eyes. Her dad had always been so optimistic and so comforting; she never thought she would hear these harsh words coming out of him, even if they all knew it was the truth.

"But, Nora," continued Barry, slowly, "if I'm to never come back to you and your mother, I want you to know that I couldn't have asked for a better and stronger daughter. You're slowly becoming a great hero and I'm proud of you. When you'll be back to your time, no matter what, remember that your dad will always love you and always be proud of the person you became."

Carefully listening, the youngster speedsters teared up and nodded.

"I love you too, dad," she whispered, almost choking on her emotions.

She wasn't going to let him die; she was going to fight 'till her last breath if she had to. She wasn't going to allow Barry to disappear in the crisis. That was a promise even if she had to give her own life in the crisis to save her father and ensure she would grow up with The Flash. If that was what it took, so be it.

As she watched her tired father slowly go back to sleep, a dark thought crossed her mind. What if dying in the crisis was already her destiny? What if her mother knew about it and that's why Iris chose to suppress her daughter's powers and keep it a secret from her? The most terrifying part of it was that it meant Nora wasn't going to succeed….

That was, unless, she could change that.

"You're going to be ok, dad, no matter the cost," she whispered to Barry's sleeping form.

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there you go, what did you think? Leave a comment, always appreciated :)
> 
> Sorry it took a few extra days and I hope it doesn't feel too rushed since last week had been way, way crazier than anticipated. If you're not on twitter, the last part is about a theory I expressed a few weeks ago; I believe it's possible Nora will die in the crisis and future Iris knew it will happen and that's why she's been trying so, so hard to keep her daughter from having speed and trying to be a hero. What do you think?
> 
> Started working on the next Zero Hour chapters, should be back either by the end of next week or the following friday, stay tuned and HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!


End file.
